The present invention relates to a roof structure for an automobile, in which an airbag for protecting the head of an occupant is attached along a front pillar and a roof side via an attachment bracket.
Airbags are inflated and deployed between occupants and glass portions of side doors from a roof side at the time of a side collision or the like and thus protect the heads of the occupants (See JP 2002-211345 A).
Conventionally, brackets used to attach an airbag have been arranged at positions away from a joint portion (superposed portion) of an upper end portion of a front pillar trim and a headliner.
In a roof structure for an automobile, a bag body of an airbag is housed in a space on the back side of the front pillar trim and the headliner. This bag body is made of a soft cloth material. The bag body is wound into a roll or folded, and is then housed in the space on the back side of the front pillar trim and the headliner. For this reason, the joint portion in which the end portion of the front pillar trim and the end portion of the headliner are superposed with each other is likely to be lifted (the joint portion is lifted up toward an inner side of the vehicle interior) due to spreading of the bag body as compared with other portions. Here, the joint portion on the headliner has a lower rigidity than the joint portion on the front pillar trim because the headliner is large in size and small in thickness whereas the front pillar trim is small in size and thus is capable of securing the rigidity. Accordingly, the joint portion on the headliner is more likely to be lifted.
In the aforementioned conventional structure, the attachment brackets are arranged at the positions away from the joint portion of the upper end portion of the front pillar trim and the headliner. For this reason, it is difficult for the attachment brackets to suppress the spreading of the bag body. As a result, it becomes difficult to prevent the headliner from being lifted, and the exterior of the joint portion is thus degraded.
Here, increasing the number of clips or the like for fixing the joint portion, or providing the headliner with a holder to stabilize the joint portion of the upper end portion of the front pillar trim and the headliner may be considered as a possible measure. However, such measures may inhibit the inflation and deployment of the airbag. Meanwhile, there are problems such as that the space used to fix the joint portion cannot be increased because the airbag also occupies a space.